Scott, who was the son of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge (1931), and studied art at the Munich State Academy in Germany and at the Royal Academy in London. In the 1930s he became known as a painter of wildlife, particularly birds, and as an accomplished single-handed yachtsman, winning the Prince of Wales Cup three times and a bronze medal at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

After distinguished service in the Royal Navy during World War II, Scott founded the Slimbridge Refuge (1946), a waterfowl sanctuary on the River Severn in Gloucestershire, where through a captive breeding program he saved the Hawaiian goose, or nene, from extinction in the 1950s. Scott guided the World Wildlife Fund by holding a number of leadership positions over the years. As a member of the Species Survival Commission of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (1962–81), he created the Red Data books, the group’s official lists of endangered species. He also led expeditions to such places as Antarctica and the Galapagos Islands, wrote 18 and illustrated 20 travel and wildlife books, and promoted conservation issues on the British television series Look and Survival. Scott was knighted (1973) and made a Companion of Honour (1987).

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In 1960 a group of British naturalists—most notably biologist Sir Julian Huxley, artist and conservationist Peter Scott, and ornithologists Guy Mountfort and Max Nicholson—led an effort to establish an organization that protected endangered species and their habitats. The following year the World Wildlife Fund was founded; the international name was subsequently changed to World...

centre of the world’s largest collection of waterfowl. It was established in 1946 by Sir Peter Scott on 418 acres (169 hectares) along the River Severn near Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, Eng. Nearly a quarter of the land is fenced off for captive birds and breeding stock; the rest of the refuge is traditional wintering ground for many species of ducks and geese. In addition to accommodating true...

study of the loss of Earth’s biological diversity and the ways this loss can be prevented. Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is the variety of life either in a particular place or on the entire Earth, including its ecosystems, species, populations, and genes. Conservation thus seeks to...

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(1909-89). The British conservationist and artist Sir Peter Markham Scott founded the Severn Wildfowl Trust in 1946. Now called the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, it is the center of the world’s largest collection of waterfowl. He also helped establish the World Wildlife Fund in 1961.